Ciarán Frawley reckons the clamour to call him the new Johnny Sexton mostly comes from his pals.
Joey Carbery's injury scare at the Aviva Stadium last weekend presented a scenario that saw Frawley come in as understudy to his Leinster colleague Sexton for the upcoming clash with South Africa.
There was a much more positive bulletin regarding Carbery's availability yesterday, along with a host of other frontliners including Tadhg Beirne, Tadhg Furlong, Jamison Gibson-Park, Hugo Keenan and Peter O'Mahony.
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With that in mind, Frawley's next taste of the action in green is expected to be for Ireland A against a New Zealand XV on the eve of the Springboks fixture.
Yet the feeling is that the versatile Frawley is building momentum and a Test debut is close for the Skerries man.
He played well in the games at out-half against the NZ Maori in the summer, played at no 12 for Leinster last season and has played at no 10 and no 15 this term but missed the Emerging Ireland tour due to a shoulder injury that he is managing this week.
"To be honest it’s just my mates that fill my head with it," he smiled, referring to the 'new Sexton' label.
"I try to start away from social media as much as I can, but they inform me enough, ‘Why aren’t you playing 10, blah blah’".
"I’m just trying to play as many minutes as I can. Again it comes back to what position I think I should play - I’m not sure yet, I’m still trying to figure that out.
"But it’s good to be getting the experience in multiple positions and hopefully if it comes down to nailing one position, it will help me in terms of understanding what you want from a 15 or a 12 or a 10."
Frawley, 24, is grateful to be working under Sexton.
"Johnny’s unreal," he commented. "We’re so lucky to have him in Leinster and here, speaking for all the lads.
"Without knowing it, we’re actually learning a lot off him, you can see the way lads are playing is very similar to Johnny - picking up little things like holding the ball at the line, that last second that he does so well.
"But then he’ll also give you a lot of constructive criticism. He wants to get the best out of you.
"When lads are playing with Johnny they always bring their game to the next level because they understand the standard they are playing with as well.
"He’s brilliant to have."
Frawley wants to plot a course to World Cup selection next year but insists that he must maintain a short-term focus to get there.
"I have to get my first cap here first," he smiled.
"So, to be honest, I wouldn’t be looking that far ahead but just do my best, whether it is playing the New Zealand A game (on Friday week) and go from there, play well in that and maybe look at one of the games against Fiji or Australia.
"If the body is feeling good then it's back to Leinster, a few big games with them, European Cup - and there’s also a Six Nations before the World Cup, so there's a lot of games coming up."
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